Elastic clothesline



June17,1941. H SNYDER 2,245,729

ELASTIC CLOTHESLINE Filed May 20, 1940 Patented June 17, 1941 UNITE. Dsinria;` s PATENT: "or Flaca ELA'sTicf oLo'n'HE'sLINEj I Y HarryYL.`Snyder, West Los Angeles, Calif., assignor to `Lower *RubberManufacturing Y Co., Ravenna, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio ApplicationMay 2o, 1940', seiiairgo. 335.139

2 Claims.

Various attempts have been made in the construction of clothes lines orholders for various articles which do not require fasteners such as thevarious makes and types of clothes pins. Also there are various types ofindoor clothes lines which may be readily removed from forming anobstruction in a room when not in use. None of these to my knowledge arefully satisfactory for the purpose I have in mind.

'Iherefore an object and feature of my invention is making a clothesline out of elastic material such as rubber strands which may bestretched to have the desired supporting factor and when released formsa compact device readily stored away in -a house or of a convenient sizefor use when travelling.

An object and feature of my invention is making a clothes line or anarticle holder of a pair of contiguous strands of elastic material suchas two substantial rubber bands secured together at spaced intervalssuch as by a vulcanized connection and therefore form loops betweenthese vulcanized spots or areas. A further detail feature as it issomewhat inconvenient spreading apart or opening the loops with onehand, is that I provide one o-r more tabs for at least one of thestrands of a loop to allow this to be stretched away from the otherstrand. These loops therefore form a convenient construction forinserting fabrics, ends of garments or the like for purposes of drying.For instance, if a corner of a garment is inserted in an open loop andpressed or pulled into a position adjacent the vulcanized area, thenwhen the loop is allowed to naturally retract and the strands are undera tensile stress and thus extended, the fabric is quite tightly held inplace. Manifestly a number of `articles of apparel 4may be held by thisstretched line. My invention also has other advantages made in shortlengths, for instance as tooth brush holders or the like in which thehandle of the brush may be gripped by the elastic strands and the brushproper maintained out of contact there' with.

My invention is illustrated in connection with the laccompanyingdrawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of my invention set up in a conventional mannerto show various ways of attaching articles of apparel.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of a section of `a line taken inthe direction of the arrow 2 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a plan of the portion of Fig, 2 taken in the direction ofarrow 3 of Fig, 2, the separation of the strands being exaggerated.

In my invention I employ two strands or bands II and I2, preferably ofrubber. These I find preferable to use of a rectangular section in whichthe vertical measurement I3 is considerably greater than the horizontalthickness measurements I4. These strands are connected together atopposite ends I5 either by being vulcanized or by some other attachmentor by the double strands being formed by loo-ping the contiguous bandtogether.

In my invention I attach the two strands at spaced intervals or areasindicated at 2I| by vulcanizing or the like. In this it is usual to havea vulcanizing type of rubber between the strands which merges therewithand need not have the space indicated in Fig. 3. However if it isdesired to avoid vulcanizing the strands may be held together byadherent sections of rubber. Between these adherent spots or areas 20there are thus formed loops 2I of the two strands II and I2. In order tofacilitate opening of the loop for inserting -articles of apparel, ateach strand I employ a pulling tab 22. These tabs are illustrated asrectangular and the upper portion 23 either vulcanized or adherent toone of the strands, in the present illustration this being illustratedas the str-and I2, leaving the lower portion 24 to be gripped by thefingers. Also these tabs may be large enough to be used for advertisingpurposes.

In the employment of my invention the ends I5 of the clothes line withthe portion of the loop adjacent thereto are caught in the hooks or theequivalent 30 indicated as attached to the walls 3| or the like. It isobvious that these end loops may be attached to articles of furnitureand the strands stretched to a satisfactory degree. This Stretchingaction tends to hold the two strand close together and thus when a loopis pulled open by the use of the tab 22, a portion of a garment orfabric article may be slipped into the loop and preferably have aportion thereof pressed close to one of the attachment areas 20. Thenwhen the tab 22 is released and the two strands pulled close together,the garment is quite rmly held in place, this being usually sufficientfor light weight articles but manifestly the device may be made to holdcomparatively heavy articles of apparel depending upon the strength ofthe rubber strands. It will be seen therefore that by my invention aswhen released, the rubber strands form quite a compact bundle and thatmy clothes line may be readily used for either purposes in a house fordrying articlesor for travellers. It is manifest that the loops formedby the two strands may be utilized to hold and suspend various articlessuch as tooth brushes or the like and especially in connection withthese types of articles the friction of the rubber With the article aidsmaterially in their support.

Various changes may be made in the details of the construction Withoutdeparting .from the spirit or scope of the invention as dened by theappended claims.

1. A clothes line having a pair of strands formed of rubber, a series ofspaced vulcanized pull such strand from the other strand Vvaiordingposition.

space for inserting and removing articles gripped by the resilientstrands holding tight together.

2. A clothes line having a pair of similar flat strands of rubber ywithcontiguous flat faces, means attaching the contiguous faces in contactone with another at spaced intervals thereby forming loops adapted tospread therebetween, a pulling tab secured -tov one of the strands ateach of the loops, means on the opposite ends of the pairs of strandsfor attachment to fixed objects to stretch the strands, a pulling tabbeing adapted to open a loop by spreading the strand to which it isattached from the opposite strand to facilitates fitting fabricstherebetween, the friction of the two strands on opposite sides of thefabric being adapted to retain the fabric in HARRY L. SNYDER.

